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Arctic Melt, by Andy Armstrong, NOAA

Caution

All technical information and scientific data released by US Government agencies (e.g., NASA, EPA…) are subject to sudden variation because of political expediency.
This caution also extends to the fidelity of the information provided by UN organizations (e.g., FAO, WHO…).

WARNING!

Point of No Return:
Unless global energy consumption is reduced immediately to below 60EJ, mechanisms that are destroying ecosystems including ozone holes, global heating, extreme climate events... reach the point of no return, overwhelm the life support systems, render most cities uninhabitable by 2015 or earlier.

Wealth & Poverty

Archive for October 8th, 2008

Image of the Day: Shame!

Protestors hold signs behind Richard Fuld, Chairman and Chief Executive of Lehman Brothers Holdings, as he takes his seat to testify at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the causes and effects of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 6, 2008. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst. Image may be subject to copyright.

Economic cost of natural disasters for the first six months of 2008 three times higher than the 10-year average

The Sichuan earthquake in China, Nargis cyclone in Burma and other ‘Natural’ disasters killed more people in first six months of 2008 than the Asian tsunami of 2004, the United Nations said.

“2008 is a terrible year. There have already been more victims than in the tsunami,” said Salvator Briceno, head of the UN’s disaster management agency (ISDR), on the occasion of the International Day for Disaster Reduction.

The disasters claimed about a quarter of million lives, and another 130 million were affected, he said.
Cyclone Nargis which struck Myanmar (Burma) in May calimed an estimated 140,000 lives, while the earthquake in China’s Sichuan province killed nearly 90,000.

Record floods in India and devastating hurricane season in the Caribbeans ontributed to the overall death toll.

The economic cost of natural disasters for the first six months of 2008 was estimated at about $40 billion, nearly three times the half-yearly average of $15bn during the past 10 years.